15 seconds to a kitted out winter ride: #ShiftintoWinter

This one time, Dave and I were driving back from the city to Pemberton and we got stuck in a crazy snowstorm. Traffic lurched to a standstill. Literally. For about 3 hours. Sledders were riding by checking things out. The snow was falling so fast and furious that it was up to our mid-shins when we stepped out of the car to explore.

Of course, we’d been running frantic errands in the city all day, and hadn’t even stopped to eat, which meant we were already HANGRY before we’d even reached Lions Bay, so after several hours trapped in a car in the middle of winter just north of Squamish, I was getting ready to turn cannibal. I’m pretty sure I bit his head off at least once.

The, EUREKA!, we remembered that, just before heading to the city, we’d picked up our mail, including a parcel from Dave’s grandparents, that included their annual gift of a Lion’s Christmas fruitcake.

“The fruitcake!”

We clawed our way frantically into the trunk, ripped open that parcel (which was triple wrapped in packing tape, as thoroughly as everything his grandparents did) and, lacking any other form of implement with which to slice that cake into pieces, severed it with a nail file that we fished out of the glove compartment.

Dave’s grandparents are quite proper, so they would have been deservedly horrified had they been able to live-stream our performance. But, a small part of me was like, well, maybe they can overlook the savagery of this moment, by being happy to know they’ve saved our lives. And our relationship.

It’s not one of my proudest moment, but it is one way of saying, why not have a little emergency kit in the back of your car, just in case the inevitable happens.

Because, Sea to Sky Highway.

And winter storms or not, you never know when you might need to break into an emergency stash of chocolate.

Pull over! Pull the car over! I need to get something.

All it takes, apparently, is 15 seconds. (via @TranBC.) And it could save your marriage. Lord knows, that fruitcake did. 🙂